The present invention relates generally to semiconductor device fabrication, and more particularly to patterning directly on an amorphous silicon hardmask.
In semiconductor device manufacturing, patterning directly on an amorphous silicon (a-Si) hardmask is difficult to achieve with high resolution due to poor adhesion between the a-Si hardmask and a subsequent resist layer. In typical practice, this adhesion at high resolutions requires deposition of an intermediary layer to facilitate adhesion, known as an organic layer. However, incorporating additional planar layers such as the organic layer not only results in additional resource expenditures, such as cost and time, but also increases integrated circuit complexity as the organic layer need be later removed.